A medical prescription

Submitted into Contest #116 in response to: Start your story with someone being forbidden from doing something.... view prompt

29 comments

Inspirational Funny Adventure

Every morning for five years, Driss helped his father's workers to take care of the farm animals before carrying a plastic bag as a satchel to school four miles from the farm. Each day at 5 p.m. he returned home to help out on the farm again. He was forbidden to open his notebooks to revise at night because he had to get up early to help on the farm before leaving for school.

His family's idea of the boy's future is to grow up, then quit school, work on the farm and get married with his sole qualification of knowing how to write his name and surname. In the kid's mind, he must study to become a pilot or a doctor or both. 

His wish to become a pilot came from his meeting, on the way to school, with a woman who told him about her pilot son by pointing a plane in the sky. His desire to become a doctor came to him from his uncle who repeatedly told stories about the skills, the kindness, the wealth of all the doctors he has consulted in his life.

Every September at the start of the school year there was discussions about whether the boy was continuing school or not, each time it ended with screaming and crying and at the end they agreed to buy some notebooks and pens for the school year.

Five years after the boy passed a national exam to go to college. Therefore, he must leave the farm and go to the next town. The farm will lose a worker and the boy will cost the family money because he will live away from them. The discussion lasted most of the summer until one day his uncle showed up at the farm with a bag of medicine and handed the boy a handwritten medical prescription asking him to explain the doctor's conclusions about his condition.

The boy was not unable to read a word of this medical prescription. The uncle laughed at him in front of all family's members and added the boy should continue studying because he is far from becoming a doctor. Then his mother decided the boy should continue to attend school until he acquires the knowledge necessary to understand a medical prescription.

He went home every vacation. He told his family stories at mealtimes: stories of opposing political currents and ensuing wars, stories of conquest of one country by another, the existence of several civilizations from several continents, thousands of languages spoken in the world. He opened their imaginations beyond the mountains that surround their farm by repeating what he had learned in school, scientific stories where he explained the solar system, the galaxies, and that the stars are suns and there are billions of them in billions of galaxies.

The adolescent becomes the sources of knowledge of this lost farm, the source of information which fills the lack of radio and television. The boy won the hearts of his family and won the lifetime ticket to go to school no matter what. It became very difficult for his family when it is time for him to leave home for school after the holidays, especially the summer holidays where he helpes a lot on the farm.

Seven years passed when the young man graduated from high school and enrolled in the university with no one on the farm knowing what kind of study he was pursuing. Without delaying on his daily life, every school year, he wore the same shirt, the same pants, the same shoes and cut his hair once a year. Despite his repeated successes in his studies, the boy felt lonely every time he left his family to go to school, it broke his heart. The exams scared him because he had to pass, but he never complained. In the minds of his family and friends, the boy is smart but in his own mind, he was not. His success comes from his hard work.

 Five years later, the boy announced to his family that he has obtained an excellence scholarship to prepare his doctorate in a foreign country about 1600 miles away from the farm. In the spirit of his kin the boy will become a doctor.

His family bought him clothes, a suitcase, a plane ticket and gave him $ 442. The departure was difficult for him and his family. But for him, the feeling of going to a foreign country, discovering a new culture and meeting other scientists outweighed his sadness. He did not see his family for three years, the only contact he had with them was the phone from time to time. He never spoke about the difficulties he encountered in keeping his family out of trouble.

Four years later, the young man defended his PhD thesis in mathematics. He never told his parents and no one knew that he was graduated and started working as an associate professor at an university in the same country. His great satisfaction comes from sending money to his family to help them buy food, medicine and for the education of his siblings and every summer he visited them and had good time with them.

One day he saw a doctor for the flu. The doctor gave him a printed medical prescription written on his computer. This time he managed to read the prescription clearly. It wasn't that kind of handwritten prescription that only pharmacists can decipher.

He dialed his father's number to tell him that he finally managed to read a prescription even though he still couldn't understand it. They laughed together, and his father told him that he is an amazing boy and he is proud of him because he made it out of the farm. His father explained to him that he knew that the road was difficult and that the medical prescription was a challenge which helped him to overcome any difficulties.

Thanks to an illegible medical prescription, Driss currently teaches and does research at the university. He has three children of his own. He pushes them hard to study but like him, they hate studies, a secret that has never been revealed to anyone. For him, studies were a loophole to get rid of the chores of the farm.

(please forgive my english)

October 18, 2021 08:55

You must sign up or log in to submit a comment.

29 comments

Ej Vizzard
22:25 Oct 30, 2021

Wow, Boutat - so many people joined Reedsy in the last few days just so they could praise your wonderful story!

Reply

Boutat Driss
12:34 Oct 31, 2021

Thank you for your message. Many of my supporters are my family. Besides, I read your story, it is really excellent. I don't have the chance to master English like you. Well done!

Reply

Show 0 replies
Show 1 reply
AKSHAY KUMAR G
15:43 Nov 15, 2022

It certainly is inspirational. Thanks for sharing😊

Reply

Show 0 replies
Olivia Jackson
12:30 Dec 24, 2021

Great story!

Reply

Show 0 replies
Tiph Reul
22:16 Oct 28, 2021

Très bonne histoire avant d’aller se coucher !!

Reply

Show 0 replies
Jordan Mikal
22:08 Oct 28, 2021

In love

Reply

Show 0 replies
Abdallah Laadjel
21:35 Oct 28, 2021

👍🏼👍🏼!!!

Reply

Show 0 replies
Howard Seeley
19:12 Oct 28, 2021

Very realistic. Is it based on your experience or someone close to you?

Reply

Boutat Driss
10:58 Oct 31, 2021

Dear Howard Seeley, thank you but is a secret. Love your stories. Well done!

Reply

Show 0 replies
Show 1 reply
18:45 Oct 28, 2021

😍😍

Reply

Show 0 replies
10:38 Oct 27, 2021

Amazing Driss ❤️❤️❤️

Reply

Show 0 replies
08:17 Oct 27, 2021

I like the simplicity with which the story is written.

Reply

Boutat Driss
11:01 Oct 31, 2021

Dear Rashmi Kumbhakarna, thank you so much.I like your stories and your style, I don't have the chance to master English like you. Well done!

Reply

14:18 Nov 07, 2021

We are all reders somehow, but writing expects a different boldness, not everyone attempts to do that. So, keep going.

Reply

Boutat Driss
16:49 Nov 07, 2021

thank you very much for your encouragement

Reply

Show 0 replies
Show 1 reply
Show 1 reply
Show 1 reply
Paul Cravelier
18:59 Oct 26, 2021

amazing !!!

Reply

Show 0 replies
Mathieu Valit
18:55 Oct 26, 2021

i love this story, continue like that

Reply

Show 0 replies
Ftn Copsi
18:48 Oct 26, 2021

good job driss ;]

Reply

Show 0 replies
Ftn Copsi
18:47 Oct 26, 2021

good

Reply

Show 0 replies
20:01 Oct 24, 2021

Love this story.Hardwork is the key to success.

Reply

Show 0 replies
Don Green
19:55 Oct 23, 2021

This is a good story. There are however, many glaring grammatical and usage errors, as well as a jarring inconsistency between past and present tense. A suggestion would be to have someone proofread for these things prior to publishing.

Reply

Boutat Driss
08:16 Oct 24, 2021

Dear Green, thank you very much for your comments. I knew that my text contains erros but I don't know anyone close enough who could correct it.

Reply

Show 0 replies
Show 1 reply
Nouh Boutat
11:21 Oct 23, 2021

Inspired by this success story, Or even assisted to a chapter of it..a generation of engineers and Phds was born..You are tha Best uncle

Reply

Show 0 replies
Nabil Asbayssi
09:18 Oct 23, 2021

🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩

Reply

Show 0 replies
08:19 Oct 23, 2021

👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

Reply

Show 0 replies
Yara Boutat
08:12 Oct 23, 2021

🤩🤩

Reply

Show 0 replies
Reedsy | Default — Editors with Marker | 2024-05

Bring your publishing dreams to life

The world's best editors, designers, and marketers are on Reedsy. Come meet them.